Bloom and Lillian D. Bloom (Oxford, 1972)

Cecilia

Frances Burney, Cecilia, ed. Peter Sabor and Margaret Anne Doody (Oxford, 1988)

DL

The Diary and Letters of Madame d’Arblay, ed. Austin Dobson (London, 1904–5)

EJL

The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, ed. Lars E. Troide et al. (Oxford, 1988–)

Evelina

Frances Burney, Evelina, ed. Margaret Anne Doody (London, 1993)

JL

The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay), ed. Joyce Hemlow et al. (Oxford, 1972–84)

Letters of Charles

The Letters of Dr Charles Burney, ed. Alvaro Ribeiro, SJ

Burney

(Oxford, 1991–)

Life of Johnson

James Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. George Birkbeck Hill, rev. L. F. Powell (Oxford, 1934–64)

Thraliana

Thraliana: The Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (later Mrs. Piozzi), 1776–1809, ed. Katharine C. Balderston, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1951)

The Wanderer

Frances Burney, The Wanderer, ed. Margaret Anne Doody, Robert Mack and Peter Sabor (Oxford, 1991)

Chronology

1752    13 June Frances (‘Fanny’) Burney, the third of six children of Charles Burney, musicologist, and Esther Sleepe, born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. (Siblings are James and Esther (‘Hetty’).)

1755    4 January Sister Susanna born.

1757    4 December Brother Charles born.

1760    c. April Burney family moves to Poland Street, Westminster, London, where CB becomes a fashionable music master.

1761    4 November Sister Charlotte Ann born.

1762    27 September Death of mother.

1763    Samuel Crisp becomes a close friend of the Burney family.

1767    13 June Destroys juvenilia in bonfire on her birthday.

2 October On second marriage of CB, to Elizabeth Allen, acquires three siblings (Stephen, Maria and Elizabeth (‘Bessy’)).

1768    27 March Begins journal, addressed to ‘Nobody’.

20 November Half-brother Richard born.

1769    23 June CB receives degree of Doctor of Music, Oxford; FB writes commemorative verses ‘To Doctor Last’.

1770    20 September Esther marries her cousin Charles Rousseau Burney.

November Burney family moves to Queen Square, Bloomsbury.

1771    30 June Plays Lady Easy and Lady Graveairs in family performance of scenes from Colley Cibber’s comedy The Careless Husband.

29 September Plays Lady Truman in family performance of Addison’s comedy The Drummer.

1772    16 May Maria Allen secretly marries Martin Rishton in Ypres.

29 August Half-sister Sarah Harriet born.

1774    8 October Burney family moves to St Martin’s Street, Leicester Square.

1777    7 April Plays Mrs Love more in elaborate family performance of Arthur Murphy’s The Way to Keep Him, including an additional scene probably written by herself, and Huncamunca in Henry Fielding’s Tom Thumb.

12 October Bessy Allen secretly marries Samuel Meeke in Ypres. Late October Brother Charles expelled from Caius College, Cambridge, for stealing library books.

1778    29 January Publishes first novel, Evelina; or, a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World.

Begins writing first comedy, The Witlings.

August Begins friendships with Samuel Johnson, members of the Johnson circle and Hester Lynch Thrale.

1779    4 May Completes first draft of The Witlings. After reading a revised draft, CB and Crisp urge her to suppress it (2 August).

1780    January Revises Act IV of The Witlings with a view to showing the whole play to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, but is persuaded by CB and Crisp to abandon it.

March–June Visits Bath with Hester and Henry Thrale.

10 June When Gordon Riots reach Bath, FB and the Thrales flee to Brighton.

1781    February Work on Cecilia retarded by FB’s ‘vile & irksome fever’.

1782    10 January Susanna marries Molesworth Phillips.

12 July Publishes second novel, Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress.

1783    24 April Death of Crisp.

1784    23 July Rupture of friendship with Hester Thrale over marriage to Gabriel Piozzi.

13 December Death of Johnson.

1786   17 July Becomes Second Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte.

1788    October Begins writing first tragedy, Edwy and Elgiva, during a period of madness of King George III.

1790    4 April Returns to Edwy and Elgiva.

August Completes first draft of Edwy and Elgiva; begins writing two more tragedies Hubert De Vere and The Siege of Pevensey.

1791    June Completes first draft of Hubert De Vere; begins writing fourth tragedy, Elberta, which will remain incomplete.

7 July Ill health compels FB to leave service of the Queen; granted annual pension.

August–September Tour of western England with Anna Ord.

1793    January Visits the Lockes of Norbury Park, Surrey, where she meets Alexandre d’Arblay; secret courtship follows.

5 July Hubert De Vere accepted by John Philip Kemble for production at Drury Lane Theatre; later withdrawn in favour of Edwy and Elgiva.

28 July Marries AA in Protestant ceremony, followed by Catholic rite (30 July).

19 November Publishes pamphlet, Brief Reflections Relative to the Emigrant French Clergy.

1794    December Revised version of Edwy and Elgiva accepted for production. 18 December FB’s only child, Alexander, born.

1795    21 March Edwy and Elgiva produced at Drury Lane, with prologue by brother Charles; withdrawn after only one performance.

1796    12 July Publishes by subscription third novel, Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth.

20 October Death of stepmother.

1798    Writes second comedy, Love and Fashion.

1799    30 October Love and Fashion accepted for March 1800 production by Thomas Harris at Covent Garden Theatre.

1800    6 January Death of Susanna.

2 February At the urging of CB, Love and Fashion withdrawn from production.

Begins writing two more comedies, The Woman-Hater, intended for Drury Lane, and A Busy Day, intended for Covent Garden; neither produced.

1802    15 April FB and Alexander follow AA to France, arriving in Paris on 20 April.

1803    12 May Outbreak of war between France and England.

1811    30 September Undergoes mastectomy for breast cancer, at home in Paris.

1812    14 August Returns surreptitiously to England, with Alexander, on an American ship that is seized by the English; disembarks at Deal.

1814    28 March Publishes fourth novel, The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties. 12 April Death of CB.

November Returns to France, leaving Alexander at Cambridge.

1815    19 March Flees from France to Belgium while AA fights in army opposing Napoleon.

17 October Returns to England with wounded AA.

2 November Takes lodgings with AA in Bath.

16 December Partial reconciliation with Hester Piozzi at Bath.

1817    24 September Narrowly escapes drowning when trapped by the tide at Ilfracombe.

28 December Death of brother Charles.

1818    3 May Death of AA at home in Bath.

30 September Moves from Bath to London, settling in Bolton Street, Piccadilly.

1819    11 April Alexander ordained priest in Church of England.

1821    19 July James appointed Rear-Admiral.

17 November Death of James.

1824    June Alexander presented as Perpetual Curate to a new Chapel in Camden Town.

1832    17 February Death of Esther.

6 November Death of FB’s closest friend, Frederica Locke.

24 November Publishes final work, Memoirs of Doctor Burney.

1836    November Alexander presented as Perpetual Curate to the Chapel of Ely in High Holborn.

1837    19 January Death of Alexander. His fiancée, Mary Ann Smith, settles with FB.

1838    12 September Death of Charlotte.

1840    6 January Death of FB in London, aged 87. Buried in Wolcot Churchyard, Bath.

Introduction

On 13 June 1767, her fifteenth birthday, Frances Burney lit a bonfire in the courtyard of her father’s house in Poland Street, London. The conflagration consisted of a great heap of manuscript ‘Elegies, Odes, Plays, Songs, Stories, Farces’, ‘Tragedies and Epic Poems’, and a novel, ‘The History of Caroline Evelyn’ – virtually all that she had written up to that time.1

The only witness to this conflagration was her younger and favourite sister, Susanna, who wept at the mass destruction.